June 30, 2015

What Donald Trump should say in response to NBC firing him

Here's what NBC had to say about parting ways with Donald Trump (via USA Today):

"Due to the recent derogatory statements by Donald Trump regarding immigrants, NBCUniversal is ending its business relationship with Mr. Trump," the statement said.

"To that end, the annual Miss USA and Miss Universe Pageants, which are part of a joint venture between NBC and Trump, will no longer air on NBC. In addition, as Mr. Trump has already indicated, he will not be participating in The Apprentice on NBC," because he is an announced Republican candidate for president.

"Celebrity Apprentice is licensed from Mark Burnett's United Artists Media Group and that relationship will continue," the network added.

Donald Trump had made some comments about Mexicans during his announcement that he was running for president. Were they poorly worded? Yes. They were vintage Trump - no holds barred stating his opinion. Should his shows be cancelled on NBC? Yes, but only because he's running for president and there is a conflict of interests there, just as CNN doing a flattering documentary on Hillary Clinton in 2016 would be.

I'm not interested in seeing Donald Trump win the GOP nomination. Not because I think he'd be a terrible president. I think he'd do miles better than his predecessor. Any of the 16 running candidates would. Trump is not the worst candidate nor is he the best. However in a general election he would be the least electable.

Then again, maybe not. He's somewhat of a wild card. If he can keep himself on message but still display his firebrand persona he could do well. I think it's not likely, but not impossible.

In that spirit let me offer Donald Trump a chance to do some damage control. Some might consider this spin, but that's politics, spin is mandatory for survival.

Trump should turn this around by focusing on the issue of NBC. Make it clear that this was not about immigrants, it was about illegal immigrants specifically, and there is a critical distinction which NBC clearly has misunderstood. They did not seek out clarification from Trump and took action unilaterally. NBC is clearly an agenda driven organization and Brian Williams (an example Trump has already raised) is proof that those of different political stripes are treated differently depending on whether they agree with NBC's viewpoint. NBC has the right to run itself that way, however they owe it to Americans to be forthright about the slant of their perspective. After all, what Trump had to say about illegal immigrants, was said from an America first perspective, something which Americans are likely to appreciate - if not his views, at least the sentiment behind them.